Don't Cry
by Alyss Mainwaring
Summary: The tears which fell down her face were the only sign she allowed visible of her sorrow.
1. Chapter 1

_**Don't Cry**_

_**By Alyss Mainwaring**_

**Word Count: 4,722**

**Summary: The tears which fell down her face were the only sign she allowed visible of her sorrow.**

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Alyss looked out over the waves to the rising of the speckled off white moon.

It was large and full.

If it were not for the circumstances that they were in, she would have laughed.

Alyss had pledged her love to Will under the rising moon and they had gotten married under the same moon a year and a half later.

Now he was returning to her under that moon.

She sighed. It felt like a part of her was missing.

This was the way Alyss always felt like when her new husband Will was away saving Araluen once again; Lonely and empty.

With no inspiration to push her further than her boundaries.

Alyss did not object to this. She knew that it was essential.

Her only wish was that she could go with him, and if that could not be, then for him to return without any wounds.

"I wonder when they will get back."

Alyss spoke her thoughts out loud, forgetting, for a second, that she was in the presence of her friends.

"I hope that they are ok."

Alyss whispered this reverently to the gently blowing breeze as it went past.

She said it like it was a type of prayer, made for the Gods ears only.

These thoughts were not only focused for herself but for the two women next to her as well, Lady Pauline and Princess Cassandra.

At first Alyss had been jealous of the Princess when she had found out the Princess' feelings for Will.

She had been reassured when Will had told her in the castle tower that he loved her.

Now both she and the Princess were married to the men of their dreams, and considered each other to be a close friend.

Halt, Will and Horace were due to come back from their mission any day now.

A letter had already arrived a head of them clarifying how they were on their way home and that their mission had been successful.

Every day since the three women gathered on the beach just before moon rise.

They then watched the moon rise.

In the letter it had stated that the men were going to arrive in Araluen by the setting sun.

As Alyss turned around to leave she saw the mast of a boat just appearing in the horizon out of the corner of her eye.

It was not standing in a straight line as around about two thirds along it was an unmistakeable break.

The top off the mast looked like it was only held on by a small piece of wood.

'Cassandra, Pauline! Look!'

When Alyss said those words is was like a change had come over her.

It was like a new hope, a new life was beginning.

The change made Pauline and Cassandra spin around.

Her ecstatic words had shocked them, as whenever Will left, it was like she become a ghost.

There, but not there.

Their eyes widened with shock as the three women took in a sight they'd never thought they would see again.

Ten minutes later the mast and its ship had pulled into the docks.

The boat seemed as if it had finally served it owners and mast came off.

There was blackened wood turning into charcoal everywhere.

The whole frame that supported the ship, if it could be called that, looked like it was going to collapse any moment.

The ship was evidently damaged beyond repair.

The sound of someone heaving broke Pauline out of her place of shock.

That sound was soon followed by a deep male voice yelling, 'Move! I need to get off this bastard ship as soon as possible!'

'Halt?'

The man in question appeared at the head of the destroyed ship looked around until he had spotted Pauline then promptly ran down, off the ship.

Meeting up with Pauline he gave her a quick kiss, gave one to the ground and ran back up onto the ship, slightly limping and thoroughly cursing the person who invented the ship enough to make a grown man wince, let alone his wife.

Fortunately for her and the other two women, they were used to it.

Pauline sighed.

She really wished that this was one habit she could break her husband out of.

Pauline regarded at Halt again and only really looked at him properly this time.

His cloak which he, like all rangers, prized so highly had holes in it, as well as the occasional blood stain.

'There's blood…' she trailed away unsure who had gotten hurt and whether it was one of their allies or an enemy.

Almost as if it had been planned the three women glanced at each other and ran to go onto the ship, cursing as they went.

Just like Halt had done previously.

They were immediately prevented from going on the ship by one of the warriors who had been positioned next to the entrance.

'We are sorry for any dilemma this might cause but you are not certified to go any further on the ship.'

'But our husbands are on there!'

'We realise that your Highness but we have secrets on here which we would not like the rest of the world knowing including Araluen.'

Cassandra simply glared daggers and him and turned to walk back down to the shore with her nose high in the air.

Pauline followed instantly while Alyss gave a quick nervous glance to the ship before following.

Ten minutes later the all the fuss and commotion on the ship that had arisen since Halt had gone back on the ship, died down once more.

Halt appeared at the head of the ship (this time blood and cloak free) followed by an also clean Horace.

Third in line was Will.

He looked the worst out of them all.

He was limping badly and he had dark, purple rings under his eyes.

He seemed to wince every time he put a small amount of pressure on one of his legs.

'Will!'

Alyss cry of anguish reached his ears.

Will frowned slightly.

Her normally level voice was displaying a lot of worry. He was not that badly hurt, was he?

'Hi Alyss,' Will called back along with a tired smile.

Halt waited till Will had caught up to him letting Horace take the lead.

He whispered something in Will's ear making him frown once again.

Ever loyal, Will still nodded his head though.

Once the men had gotten off the ship and down the bottom they were rushed upon by their wives.

'What did you do Will?'

'He turned out a lot worse than me. He ended up dead.'

'I don't care about him. The person I care about is you. What happened?'

'I got hurt.'

'I thought that was obvious.'

'Well then you know everything you need to know. Really Alyss, if I was allowed I would tell you, but…'

'Right then shut your gob and listen. If you ever do something like this again to yourself, you will not live to see the next day.'

'But then you would be sad because I would not be there.'

'Alyss, I would recommend not tiring Will out a lot. It only happened this morning. I don't even think that he is meant to be walking on it but he is too stubborn for his own good.'

Halt stage whispered the last part about him being too stubborn for his own good, in her ear.

Alyss jumped ever so slightly.

She had not even noticed Halt coming up behind her.

Normally she could but he was probably relaxed then.

He had just come back from a mission so it made sense that he was still very jumpy.

Especially since they had recently been attacked.

She turned to face Will again only to see his eyes flick to meet Halt's.

Frowning he ran over to stand behind Will just in time to catch him as he fainted.

'Will!' Alyss cried.

'Pauline, she needs to move.'

'Going.'

Horace came over and sat next to Halt as he performed check-ups.

Suddenly Halt got up and ran to go back up onto the ship, leaving Horace with his hand on Will's wrist, constantly checking his pulse.

Down Halt came again, this time with an unknown man.

'He should not be walking. It only happened this morning and he has not healed.'

'What did he do?' asked Alyss hesitantly afraid of what he had really done.

There were so many simple things that could put a person out of work forever.

All it took was one mistake and you were gone.

'He managed to get stabbed in the stomach deeply and –'

Started the healer, only to be interrupted by Halt.

'– a raving mad lunatic broke his ankle.'

'Why did you get attacked in the first place?'

'Horace, why don't you explain that to Alyss over there.'

Halt finished off, pointing to a spot far away.

'No Halt, I want to stay with my husband.'

'Alyss go. Now.'

Rolling her eyes she made sure she glared constantly as she was led away with Horace.

Once they had gotten a seat Horace began.

'We had thought that the mission was over but apparently not. On the ship coming here we were only about half a day away when we got attacked.'

Horace's eyes glazed over as he remembered what had happened.

'I was talking to Will, well, more like making fun on Halt with Will's help, when the air was filled with shouts of "fire!" and the smell of smoke. We all turned to see what it was but we turned around to the sight of another ship. One that was a lot bigger than this one.

'We shouted and pointed but no one heard us as they were too busy trying to put out the fire. You should have seen Halt's face then. He used to hate ships, now he loathes them with a passion,' Horace paused then to laugh at old memories, and then he continued.

'Very soon we were under siege. There were men coming from everywhere! The odds were about one of ours to every three of theirs.'

'Ok. That I must admit is a bit more than out numbered. How did you get out of it? You should have died.'

Realising her mistake Alyss added another sentence.

'Not that I wanted you guys to, but…'

'I understand. Who really saved us was Will. He saw a piece of timbre that was swaying. It was very high and was only held on to the pole by a small splinter. He threw his saxe, by then he had lost his throwing knife, and broke the splinter. The piece off wood fell down and knocked out 6 men. All the men were the enemy.

'While the others turned to see what had happened he motioned for us to kill the remaining enemies. He had just lost his last weapon so when his attacker found out what had happened to his allies he turned around and stabbed Will hard in the stomach. Halt, to pay him back, killed him.

'The only other man still alive went raving mad and tackled Will. Somewhere, somehow in that scuffle the "raving mad lunatic" to quote Halt, managed to break Will's ankle, badly.'

'So that is how he and you all, are in the position you are on now.'

'Yes.'

The two close friends were silent, musing over their thoughts, until Halt called them over.

'Alyss? Horace?'

'Yes.'

They both replied at the same time.

'We are going to a little cottage near here. It was made for the ranger's when we have to stop next to the sea for the night on missions. We need Will on tug. I will ride behind him, keeping him on the horse.'

The six friends put the plan into action and slowly moved out.

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Three days later in the morning, Alyss was sitting next to Will's bed when she suddenly felt sick.

She rushed out to the toilet.

Hurling up her breakfast, Alyss's only thoughts were about what would happen if Will woke up and she wasn't there.

Mumbling her worries out loud, Alyss jumped as a new voice joined in to hers.

'You are really going to hate me, but you can't not see Will if you're sick.'

Pauline told her gently.

Alyss grimaced.

She knew that there was no point in trying to argue.

Alyss would not permit herself to see him when she was in this state, knowing that he could easily catch it himself.

It was worth a try though, even if the only reason she did it was to take her mind off her hurling up her breakfast.

'But…'

'I thought you had more sense than that, not to argue. You know it is the right thing.'

Pauline was now kneeling beside her.

'I am trying to take my mind of me losing me breakfast actually.'

This was followed by her losing the previous night's dinner as well.

After a minute Alyss felt like she was not going to lose any more food and slowly stood up.

Pauline smiled at her, guiding her inside.

Walking over to Halt, Pauline lent in towards his ear.

'Alyss is not feeling the best. She should probably stay away from Will. At least until she is over this.'

'Strange. She does not look like she is sick.'

'Yes well, you really want to doubt me?'

'No. I am fine,' said Halt in response to her and walked inside to Will's room.

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Will felt like he was drowning in a sea of blackness.

A voice suddenly broke through the black to reach him.

'Why the Hell did you do it Will? That I must admit saved our lives but nearly cost you yours! If you die on me I will never forgive you.'

Even more softly the voice muttered, 'I wouldn't get the chance to.'

Try as hard as he might, Will could not just swim out of the darkness and find out who the voice belonged to.

It took him some time but eventually Will was able to get out of the blackness and find the owner of the voice.

He slowly opened his eyes to a bright light.

Closing them suddenly alerted the person in the room that he was awake.

The footsteps get softer as the person walked up the window and drew the blinds shut.

'Try now.'

Obeying the voice Will slowly opened his eyes once more.

The person in the room was Halt.

What surprised Will even more than that was the fresh tear tracks on his face.

Deciding to ignore it, Will watched as Halt sat down once more.

'How are you feeling?'

'Like crap.'

'Understandable.'

Halt moved to the end of the bed and started slowly and gently unwrapping his ankle.

'That's swollen.'

'Lovely.'

Will stated simply, voice thick with pain.

'I have to go get Seamus for this. I have no clue as to what to do with it.'

Halt glanced back up again to see Will clenching his teeth in pain.

'Back in a second.'

Will watched Halt gently put his foot back down and leave the room.

Once he was gone Will inspected his room.

It was exactly like his cottage back at Redmont except for a few details.

There were no flowers in the room, while at his house there were flowers in almost every room.

There was not a closet in this room either, just pegs for weapons and his cloak.

On the topic of my cloak… looks like I am going to have to get a new one. He thought.

Halt chose that time to walk back in followed by the healer Seamus.

'You should not have walked on it.' He said while applying a tonic to it.

'Don't walk at all for at least the next 3 weeks. You will make it worse.'

Seamus motioned to Halt to help Will into a sitting position so he could check his stomach wound.

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Pauline looked up from her reports just as Halt walked through the door. He was pale and sat down with a heavy thud on the couch next to her.

'What's happened?' Pauline asked.

Halt shook his head no in response.

Every time she tried to coax it out of him he would not answer.

Until the third time she tried.

'What wrong?'

She jumped as she heard his voice shaky and thick with tears. She jumped once again as she saw those same tears start to leak from his eyes.

'Seamus was checking on Will's stomach wound when Will suddenly fainted. I checked for his pulse to find none. Seamus was working to resuscitate him. He told me I was in the way and for me to await news outside. So here I am, awaiting news.'

Pauline hugged him.

The couple stayed like that until Seamus walked into the room, looking frazzled.

'He is alive, only just though. He will need constant supervision.'

The healer was surprised when Halt thanked him.

He was then not surprised when he was roughly pushed aside so that Halt could go to Will.

'Sorry.' Muttered Pauline.

'Thanks ok. I would have been shocked if he had asked me to move.'

Pauline grimaced. 'I am trying to break him out of that. Normally works. Though, it doesn't work when he is worried.'

Smiling once at each other they went their separate ways. Pauline to Will's room, Seamus to his crew.

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'Alyss.'

'That's a pretty name. Pretty name for a pretty girl. Now what's wrong?'

Describing all of what had happened to her, the town herbalist smiled knowingly.

'I think I know what is wrong with you dear. Are you married?'

Alyss frowned. Why was this woman asking her a question like this?

'Yes. Why?'

'I think that you are pregnant, Sunshine.'

Alyss now changed her confused stare to one of shock. 'How far along?'

'I would say about 3 months.'

She nodded. It all made sense now that she thought about it. She smiled then frowned.

'What's wrong?'

'My husband is hurt…somewhat badly.'

The herbalist comforted Alyss as she cried.

'Then what are you doing here? Go be by his side.'

'Thank you.'

'Thank you.' The herbalist said back.

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'Halt, I can not find Alyss anywhere.'

Halt glanced up at his wife and then look back down to Will. He looked stable enough. Halt stood up.

'Watch him, please.' Pauline nodded her consent.

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Halt first went to the stables.

One horse was missing. Hers.

Tug all of a sudden started neighing. This was getting more puzzling by the second.

'Hi, Halt. Sorry I wanted to get something checked out. Good new is I am not sick.'

'Hi Alyss. What was wrong then?'

Alyss hesitated. She wanted to tell Will first before anyone else.

'I don't want to say.'

'Right. Alyss you need to see Will.'

'Why? What's happened to him?'

'His heart gave out from stress. We managed to resuscitate him, but he is not the strongest.'

Alyss gave one worried look and ran to Will's room direction.

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'Will!' Alyss said as she entered the room.

Pauline threw her husband a look and he came over to whisper in her ear.

'She is not sick. That was why she went out. I don't know what is wrong with her but I know that she is not sick. If Will suddenly … passes over today, I think that she deserves to be with him.'

Pauline nodded. 'Yes. I agree.'

'Alyss?' said a week voice.

Alyss looked up from her position of holding Will's hand. She hadn't realised that tears were falling down her face.

'I'm right now. Just…'

Will's wife looked at Halt's wife quickly. Pauline nodded. She started ushering people out of the room.

Halt came up to whisper in her ear now.

'If anything, and I mean anything, happens to Will, if he starts coughing, can't stay awake or anything of the sort, get me.'

'I will.' With a final nod he left the room.

'Will, I need to tell you something.'

'What?'

'I'm… um… pregnant.'

'What?'

'You are going to be a father in about six month's time.'

'If I live that long.' Will remarked back. The couple fell silent, till Alyss decided to give good luck back.

'You are going to live that long. You have to be here to play with your child. When are we going to tell them?'

'When you get out there you can. I guess that I wanted to tell them with you, but for that to happen I would have to be awake and well enough to speak properly.'

Alyss just looked at him sadly. There was nothing she could say to this.

The silence between them stretched, as they thought about what was going to be of their future.

'I **will not **tell them. You **are **going to make it out of this and **you will **be well enough to tell our friends.' She said kissing him on the cheek.

They both looked up and jumped, as Halt entered the room once more.

'You need to preserve your strength, Will. You should go to sleep.'

Alyss looked at her Ill husband once more. 'Stay well.' She said, leaving the room.

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Outside Alyss ran into Pauline.

'How are you feeling?'

'Better. Now that I know what was wrong,'

'What was wrong?'

'I don't want to say until Will is better.'

'Alyss, come sit.' Once sitting down Pauline spoke again.

'There is a big possibility that Will is not going to make it out of this alive. You might need to accept that fact soon.'

Alyss stood up in shock. 'NO! He will get through this! He has to! If not for me, then for family.' Alyss whispered the last part silently as the tears started to break through the barriers she had built.

'Alyss all will be well in the end. Don't cry.'

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**In there is a semi quote from a poem. One guess which poem. And the title is a line out of a song. Prizes for who can guess which ones. The healers name… um… my brother was going to be called that until he got named after Dad…first name which came into my head actually… I know Halt is weird, he is worried. I like making people sighing. Seems to be habit of mine to make them sigh like that. I should stop ranting.**

**Now review. Please?**

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	2. Chapter 2

**People This was meant to be a one shot but I have gotten so many alerts and reviews that I will add another chapter.**

**It wont be as long as the first one as that took me months to write. **

**I promise to get onto the next chapter.**

**As soon as I know where I am going next…**

**Aly**


	3. Goodbye

**I think that I am not going to continue this. I am going to leave it open ended for all you viewers to think about what is going to happen. I have tried for months to put another section onto it but I could not match it. My new muse (my last one died some how) in still in training and forgets to come to work. She has been rather ill recently (I am just coming up with excuses now) and she is making it up to me today. **

**I still have not been able to continue this and I don't think I ever will. I feel so sorry for giving you two authors' notes in a row and I am going to make it up to you by putting what I have managed to get done and stumped on.**

**I was unable to decide to kill will or to leave him alive. That was my main problem. **

**Well here is what I have done…**

The next couple of days were hard for Alyss as she tried to come to terms with the possibility of losing Will and as she also tried to keep her faith that he was going to make it

Nothing was able to help her with the thought of Will dying. But also nothing was able to help her with the thought that he was going to make it.

She was a lone, lost, confused, pregnant woman with no clue as to whether her husband was going to make it alive or not.

**I know that it is like three lines or something but I was in big trouble with writing recently. I think I just gave up. I have not touched a pen and paper since November and only picked it up again in April for the script frenzy.**

**So here I am. A sad author saying that there will be no more to one of the favourite fics she has ever written.**

**So long…**

**Alyss Mainwaring**


	4. Offer

**I have a special one time Christmas offer for you all.**

**Anyone who reviews on Christmas day (25****th****) I will go to their page and review at least on all of their stories. Even if I don't know their categories. If I get really involved in the story then I will review every chapter.**

**A review for a review.**

**(You might get the reviews after Christmas day as I am normally really busy but if I am able to on that day…)**

**Merry Christmas to you and your kin!**

**Alyss Mainwaring**


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